The Used Series
by Daniel Jasper
Summary: 'Axel Flynn hated middle school. Pure and simply because his single-parent mother could never hold down a stable job long enough for them to ever get settled, forcing the small family move around a lot. To say that he had trouble making friends was an understatement… Until he met Roxas.' Rated T for language, and bullying via Saix. [Akuroku pre-slash]


**Disclaimer: **I do not own any of the Kingdom Hearts plots, characters or designs.

**A/N: **[AU] '**The Used**' challenge. See profile for accompanying notes.

**Warnings: **Bullying, and language.

* * *

**The Bird And The Worm**

* * *

_**Pyrokinesis [pahy-roh-ki-nee-sis]**_

_**Noun (in science fiction): **__the ability to set objects or people on fire through the concentration of psychic power._

_**Origin:**__ pyro- + (tele)kinesis_

* * *

_Middle school._

Axel Flynn hated middle school. Pure and simply because his single-parent mother could never hold down a stable job long enough for them to ever get settled, forcing the small family move around a lot. To the extent that the skinny thirteen-year-old boy had never attended any educational institution for more than a couple of months –_six at best, if he was lucky._

To say that he had trouble making friends was a fucking understatement.

It didn't help that the boy was uncommonly tall for his age, and unnaturally wiry and thin. Coupled with long, flaming auburn hair that reached his navel, messy, grungy clothes and an old backpack he never let out of his sight, it wasn't hard for Axel to become an easy target for older –_more financially secure-_ bullies within a few short days of starting at any new school.

He cringed, fixing his face in distaste. As if _Destiny Islands' Middle School _was going to be any different. Axel's mother had been offered a job as the secretary for a high official in some organization or something. He hadn't really been listening; the moment the dark haired woman had mentioned the word 'move', he sprang from the dinner table –_food hardly touched-_ and ran to his room, slamming the door in an angsty teenage fashion.

Tugging his hands through his hair, the red-head gave a frustrated sigh and whipped it into the assembly of a bun, hoping it would distract the other kids from its length. Unfortunately, tying Axel's fiery-red hair always brought more attention to his face, particularly the bright, envy-green eyes, than was absolutely necessary.

Pulling a band shirt over his head, he crawled under the chaotic mess that was his bed, found the scruffy backpack, flipped a beaten skateboard into his hands and walked out the bedroom door. Glancing down at his wristwatch, he checked the time.

Four minutes to make it to the bus stop down the block.

_Fuck. _He was going to be late.

* * *

**_"He wears his heart safety-pinned to his backpack_**

**_His backpack is all that he knows_**

**_Shot down by strangers whose glances can cripple_**

**_T__he heart and devour the soul"_**

* * *

"So nice of you to finally join us Mr-," a stilted pause, "Flynn. Please… Come inside, and join the rest of your classmates."

'_Damn it._' Axel cursed under his breath, actually surprised that anyone had noticed his current position behind the classroom door. He had been hiding there for the last seventeen minutes, contemplating whether to just sneak in and simper in on towards the back, or to completely skip the class altogether.

Risking a quick glance around the room, he searched for a desk. Spotting an empty seat in the last row next to a short, blonde-headed kid, he gulped in relief. _Good. He wouldn't have to sit in the front, right under the teacher's nose like some pathetic pet._

Axel's respite was short-lived, however, when he felt a calloused hand twist around his pale wrist and jerk him backwards to meet the stormy, grey eyes of said teacher. The man looked about forty, silvery wafts of hair betraying the angry youthfulness of his face –the disgusted composure his body held told the boy enough to know that he wasn't impressed with his presence.

"I don't recall telling you that you could take a seat, Mr Flynn."

Axel stared back at him pointedly, biting his bottom lip in uneasiness. "What exactly do you want me to do… Sir?" he growled flippantly, adding the polite title as an afterthought.

"You're new. Introduce yourself." He said simply, turning back to the stack of papers he had on his desk. Judging by the scribbly, blue-inked writing that took up most of the page, it looked like the class had just handed in an essay. _Great. More work to catch up on._

The teacher's deep baritone voice interrupted Axel's musings, "I'm not going to ask you again. Get on with it."

"Right." The red-head shifted his weight nervously from foot to foot, "Where to start?"

"How about at the beginning?" the same blonde kid from the back suggested with an encouraging grin on his soft face. Axel allowed a small smile to grace his lips for a moment, before it was _once again_ replaced with his characteristic depressed scowl.

"The name's Axel, got it memorized? I moved from Twilight Town just a few days ago, and probably won't be sticking around for long so I suggest you all just do yourselves a favour and leave me the fuck alone."

Not surprisingly, a shuddered gasp made its way through the front row –three girls in short, preppy skirts turning out to be the guilty party. Axel snorted at their response, inclining his head to the right to see if the man, now nearing the black board, had any objections to the use of a curse word.

"Any questions?" the teacher merely asked, before turning back to the greying surface, a yellow nub of chalk in his hand and a bored expression on his tired face.

"Yeah, I've got one." A kid with rosy, pink hair shouted while eyeing Axel's untidy hair. "Why the hell is your hair so long? You a girl?"

Not aware of the fact that he had pulled his hand to rest near the flaming-red bun, Axel scowled. "I'll give you the same reason I'm sure you spit out at everybody else, Bubble-gum head…" his fingertips beginning to warm a little, "It's none of your fucking business."

Nails digging into Axel's scrawny shoulder grounded the boy and told him that he had gone too far with the last statement. "That'll be all for now, thank you." Another sharp squeeze. "Sit down." The teacher quickly bit out, pushing Axel towards the back.

Collapsing in his seat, Axel dumped his bag on the floor and buried his face into his arms.

"Hey," a soft voice whispered from the side, waiting for red-head to peak out from his defensive position. The thirteen-year-old boy was met with an eyeful of golden-blonde hair and big, cerulean blue eyes. Satisfied that he had Axel's attention, he continued, "Marluxia's kind of a prat –_ignore him_."

The red-head nodded in the fold of his limbs, watching as the kid twisted the course material of his denim-jacket sleeves in his small hands, and stumbled over his words. "I- I'm Roxas, by the- the way. Roxas Strife."

Axel opened his mouth, a response forming on his lips- only to be interrupted by a certain, silver-haired teacher.

"Oh, and Mr Flynn?" the man's voice echoed loudly from the front of the class, where he had already started scribbling the instructions for their next English literature assignment.

Axel looked up.

"You have detention this afternoon as a result of your tardiness, and your-" he smirked, "lack of manners."

_Fuck you too, Mr Xigbar._

* * *

**_"Out of his mind, the way pushes him whispering_**

**_Must have been out of his mind_**

**_Midday delusions of pushing this out of his head_**

**_Make him out of his mind"_**

* * *

The cafeteria.

A horrible place designated within most confines of the schools Axel had attended, where children of varying ages and sizes all became unanimous in their attempt to scarf down their food as boisterously as possible, while being as loud as they could conceivably go about doing it.

The red-head screwed his face up and cringed for the second time that day, not knowing what to expect as took his first Converse-dubbed steps through the whitewashed, lunch-hall doors.

It was noisy all right, Axel hadn't expected any different from a school that had nearly four hundred snot-nosed children on roll. Except that perhaps while generally his previous schools' lunch-halls encompassed a mass of incomprehensible students, these kids seemed to have separated themselves into groups of some sort –_cliques if you will_. He didn't much care for them, having never been considered 'good enough' to belong to any part of the social order unless he was at the bottom of it.

Another site that nearly had the red-head fleeing for the exit once again, was the fact that these middle school kids were queued in a line of some sort, waiting to be served their lunch and-

_Oh no!_

Axel watched as a dark-blue-haired student –_what is it with these kids and their abnormal hair colours?- _moved along and released a handful of coins into the cafeteria matron's calloused, out-stretched one.

_Shit._

If he wanted any food at this place he'd need to have munny.

Applying pressure to the pain of his stomach's hunger, Axel berated himself for not grabbing something earlier that morning before leaving his mother's crummy apartment.

Not that they had much in the way of food at the moment. Hopefully she'd remember to pick up something on her way from work.

Giving an irritated sigh, he mentally shrugged. It didn't matter. He was skinny. It wouldn't look too out of place if he didn't eat anything today. Or for the rest of the week, for that matter. He'd make up an excuse to hide in the library or something during lunch-hour.

Turning to leave, a voice called from a crowded table near the back of the hall causing Axel to pause in his steps.

"Hey Axel!"

Roxas bounded forwards and stopped short of actually crashing into the green-eyed teen. Clasping a small hand around a slender wrist, the golden-blonde looked into those bright envy-green eyes, and gave the flaming red-head a quick, pinked-lipped smile.

"You should come and sit with us." He pointed towards the table that he had come from, raucous teens shouting at each other and laughing. Axel stiffened. He didn't care much for other people, especially people who didn't like him based on fucking principle.

Swallowing, and trying to avoid eye-contact with said group of kids, he whispered, "You sure?"

Roxas gave a small, confident nod –his face lighting up as Axel agreed to sit with him and his party of friends. About to pull the hesitant teen along with him, the blonde hadn't counted on the red-head's hand to suddenly leave his grasp.

Axel had been floored. His beloved, greying backpack thrown a metre off.

The same guy with wild, dark-blue hair that framed his face sharply from before was standing over his lithe body, amber eyes boring into the emerald of the boy beneath him.

"Oh, I am sorry! Axel, was it?" he sneered, glancing over the younger boy's simple clothes, and the spaghetti casserole that had now ruined the red-head's fronts. "Maybe you should watch where you're going next time…"

Axel bit down on his tongue, choking on the impulse to respond.

"…_freak_."

_That's it!_

Pulling himself to shaky feet, Axel raised his hand, knuckles clenching in anticipation- "And maybe," a short breath, "you should take your own shitty advice, _asshole!_"

An angry fist met heated flesh, a bruised purple mark leaving its stain as he pulled back waiting in expectation for the other boy's retaliation.

_Damn. That felt go-_

A stern female shrieked from the doorway behind the red-head, interrupting his adrenaline-fuelled thoughts.

"Axel Flynn! To the principal's office…"

Nobody moved.

"NOW!"

* * *

Twenty-two, _slow_, minutes had passed since Axel had been hauled off to principal's office. He was currently seated in a cherry-red plastic chair of which a series had been arranged near Mr Xemnas' slightly ajar glass door.

Dalmasca, the slender-framed assistant, had told him that the burly man would be just a few more moments.

'_Yeah right. That had been a whole fifteen minutes ago_', he thought as he fingered the fraying straps of his backpack, pulling at the sewn-in seams. Catching the Miss Dalmasca eyeing his antics, the young woman snorted –flicking her short, sandy blonde hair and swaying her pink mini-skirt clad hips away in disproval.

Axel immediately stopped his meagre attempt at destroying the cloth even further and pulled the bag into his lap, feeling the course texture of weathered canvas between his willowy fingertips and allowing the familiar smell of musky aftershave to permeate his senses.

It had been his dad's. _Once upon a time._

A smart navy-black in its prime, in fact.

The man had supposedly left when Axel was very young, joining the army to bring the family name some honour and had just never returned home, his mother had said.

_Ha! Some family honour the Flynns had!_

She'd probably made the whole story up to console him as a babe.

_You know,_ _whatever helped her sleep at night_.

However, Axel wasn't a naïve kid anymore. The red-head knew well enough what abandonment looked like about now. But, nevertheless, the backpack had belonged to his father and now Axel clung to the faded, bobby-pin-infested material as it was the only reminder that he had once had more than one parent around.

"You're free to enter Mr Xemnas' office now, kid." Miss Dalmasca finished with an irritated click of her heels. "Best you get a move on. He's not in a great mood either, if you know what I mean."

"The day's not even over yet, and already you've managed to land yourself in a physical fight, Mr Flynn." There was a calculated pause as the slightly tanned, muscular man raked over the student in front of him, "Care to explain yourself, boy?"

When Axel didn't even open his mouth in response –_he knew well enough when to keep quiet_, the principal pressed on.

"I don't suppose you realise that this is an incredibly prestigious school, Mr Flynn and the likelihood of your acceptance at this institution under any less, _extenuating _circumstances would have be minuscule to none. In other words," malicious eyes locked with the green of the boy's across the room, "you're lucky to even be here." He finished with a hiss.

The thirteen-year old gave an involuntary flinch, bringing a smile to Xemnas' face that looked grossly out of place.

"Adolescents like you, _brat_, are rude and insolent." The man fingered a file of papers, averting his gaze when his hands rested on a coffee-stained, yellow document. "I have documents that report you've been a problem for quite some time now."

The older man ruffled through some more pages.

"Suspended from three different schools in the last year… Expelled from Transverse Town Public School two years ago, for violence-"

"I'd like to see you make it through a day of what I went through at that school! Fucking bullies everywhere-"

"-and suspicion behind an upper-year classroom burning down…" he glared, daring Axel to interrupt again.

That hadn't been the red-head's fault either, surprisingly. The cleaning staff had left several stationary fans on over the weekend after mopping the classroom floors. The main plug-point short-circuited, result in a damning fire that destroyed nearly half of room.

Unfortunately, Axel had stayed after school unsupervised on that fateful Friday afternoon to complete an art project at a teacher's request, and so was burdened with blame given his less-than-perfect rapport with the school in general.

"Let me make it quite clear Mr Flynn that any behaviour such that Saïx Sato and yourself have displayed today, and more importantly, in your past, is not tolerated in _MY _school. Your continued acceptance at _Destiny Islands' Middle School_ rests on the condition that your keep your_figurative_ nose clean. If you even think of causing the slightest of trouble with the rest of the student population, you will be facing dire consequences. Do you understand me?"

Axel gave a nervous, affirmative shake of the head.

"Now, I'm a fair man at heart-"

_I highly doubt that._

_"…_seeing as eye-witnesses have informed the office that you weren't the only one at fault, Mr Sato will join you in a month of afternoon detention." He cleared his throat, "Starting tomorrow."

_A month!_

"That's not fair!" Axel burst, abandoning his faulty resolution to keep his mouth shut.

Mr Xemnas raised an immaculate, silvered-eyebrow, "Shall I make it two?"

"No." the red-head mumbled, attempting to rub away the nagging tingling sensation in his hands.

Standing away from his over-large, mahogany desk, the principal stalked across the room threateningly and grasped Axel by the scruff of his neck.

"Excellent," he shoved the thin boy towards the glass door. "Now get out of my sight, boy!"

Axel landed ungracefully on his knees, hissing when the sting of carpet-burn seared through his jeans. Noticing that he was empty handed, he stood –_ignoring the pain- _and glowered.

"My back pack, sir."

It hit the red-head squarely in the chest. He didn't have to be told twice. He was getting the fuck out of there.

Unbeknownst to a smirking Xemnas, as he watched his latest victim scramble from his presence, the large file that housed Axel's records had begun to curl in small, smoking flames.

* * *

After running into a nearby bathroom to splash smoothening water on his face and wipe off the left over spaghetti casserole from his shirt, Axel was relieved to see that he still had a few minutes before a… Mr Vexen's Science class started, by the looks of the timetable that had been roughly drawn up for him in a rush this morning.

"Oh, there you are Axel!"

_Wow. The kid really had his name memorized._

"Uh, Roxas?" he stared at the short blonde who seemed to appear out of nowhere, quickly joining him in the wait outside Mr Vexen's door. "Are you- are you following me?"

Roxas playfully swatted at Axel's forearm, "No silly. I think I just have the same classes as you." Spotting the crumbled timetable in the red-head's hand, the blonde plucked it from his grip and smoothened it out against the bricked part of the wall.

"Yup." He nodded, glancing over each lesson plan, "I'm in every one of your classes. Err, except for band. I have drama instead."

"Is that so?" Axel smirked. "I'd never peg you for a drama-queen, Roxas."

"Yeah?" he grinned, "And I'd never peg you for a band-geek, Axel. So, I guess we've both been duped."

* * *

Mr Vexen turned out to be one of those people who, the title of 'Science teacher' aside, appeared to be every bit of the stereotypical 'mad-scientist' type. Hair spiked wildly around his head, he wore a uniform of a well-worn white coat with like-coloured boots and gloves rolled up messily at the elbows. Chemical goggle glasses draped around his lean neck.

"You have seen them before. Those fuzzy, green-grey spots that show up on food after it's been hanging around your fridge for too long. They look gross, smell worse and ruin any chance you had of enjoying a peanut butter sandwich." The man grinned, "However, they do provide the perfect opportunity for investigation!"

"Are we actually going to do any experiments?" someone called out.

At the mention of the word 'experiment', everyone turned perked up in interest to eye the equipment Mr Vexen had laid out on the desk before him.

"I'm a Science teacher, child. Experiments are what I do, yes?" Confident that he wasn't going to be interrupted again, the platinum-blonde teacher continued.

"Anyway, as I was saying, the green stuff on your bread," he picked up a slice of white, "is called mould. Mould is a microscopic, living organism in the Fungi kingdom, related to yeast and mushrooms. Although it can be harmful if handled incorrectly, mould is not a bacteria or virus…"

Axel began to lose interest, moving to rest his head upon the badly painted lab desk both he and Roxas were seated at. Roxas on the other hand was sitting upright, a standard yellow no. 2 pencil scratching away at the notepad in front of him as he twirled his golden locks between his small fingers.

The red-head hated to admit it, but he found the distracting notion oddly… calming. Which was saying something as the envy-green eyed boy never quite seemed to relax.

"…the growth that you see on your food –trillions of mould spores!" Mr Vexen finished with a dramatic flourish of his chemical stained hands, catching Axel's attention once more. Stepping back and taking notice of the greenish, queasy look his class's appearance had taken, the platinum-blonde haired man smiled good-naturedly.

"Mould spores are everywhere, students. However, do not worry! Mould is a natural part of our world and it will not do you harm in these small quantities. In fact, some people think mould is pretty tasty… Can anyone give me an example?"

Someone in the middle row picked up their hands.

Mr Vexen inclined his head, "Yes Hayner?"

"Cheese, sir." He replied self-assuredly.

The teacher clapped his hands together ecstatically. "Correct Mr Sasaki. Now, for this experiment you'll be growing different types of bread mould and will be studying the resultant effects that they have under temperature differences."

Picking up a stack of A5 pages he began walking down the aisles, his white coat billowing behind him in a theatrical fashion.

"The instructions and requirements are listed on the hand-out I have given you. You are required to create a hypothesis, complete several preparatory sketches and answer any questions the project presents. Am I clear?"

A collective groan of 'yes' rippled through the classroom.

"Before you pair off, the designated spaces for the experiment are as follows: the cupboard at the back will house the 'dark and cold' and the windowsill will be monitored for 'daylight and room temperature'. Please make sure your sandwich bags are clearly labelled with all participants' names."

"Sandwich bags?"

Mr Vexen clicked his tongue in frustration.

"Read through the hand-out, Hayner. The control is up front near my desk for observation purposes. Please be sure to include it in your write-up."

* * *

Roxas turned to face the lanky red-head beside him. "So, Axel… You wanna be my partner?"

"Huh?" the boy blinked tiredly, a spot of drool gracing his chin after he nodded off again.

"Partner. For the project… You in?" the blonde asked again eagerly.

"Oh," Axel rubbed tiredly at his eyes, "Sure… um, Mr Vex-"

Roxas laughed, studying the confused expression his partner's pale face had displayed, "Mr Vexen tends to view life as one grand experiment, approaching problems like an intellectual, with a hypothesis and a method to test out those hypotheses…" A pause, "I know. He's a little weird…"

Axel sat up now, pulling a piece of paper and pen from his back pack. "So, I think before we set up this experiment let's just jot down a few questions about it."

"Cool. Shoot."

The red-haired boy bit down on the lid of the blue-inked pen, scrunching his face in concentration. "Uh- When did the mould fist appear?"

"What colour is the mould and why?"

"Yeah, good… Where on the bread did the mould grow?"

"In which environment did mould grow the best?"

"When does it grow the fastest?"

"Why do you think inhaling mould is bad?"

Axel rose a questioning eyebrow. Roxas cocked his head, and smiled.

"Bonus question."

The banter continued for a further five minutes, until the pair quietly collected their materials from Mr Vexen and began putting the assignment together. While the blonde wrote out the labels for each sandwich bag, the red-head squared them off with a permanent marker that Roxas had provided.

"Axel?"

"Mm… What is it?" he licked his lips, shoving a slice of bread into each clearly marked bag.

Roxas hesitated, biting down on his tongue before opening his mouth. "Do you wanna meet up after school? To work on this." He quickly added.

"I can't."

The blonde visibly deflated, his partner scowling angrily.

"I have detention. Courtesy of Xigbar," the red-head growled out the name, "remember?"

* * *

_**"All alone he turns to stone**_

_**While holding his breath half to death**_

_**Terrified of what's inside to save his life**_

_**He crawls like a worm from a bird**_

_**Crawls like a worm from a bird"**_

* * *

It was late.

Axel could tell by the amount of daylight that danced through the roof windows. The sun was low, barely lighting the cream-coloured walls with its presence. The lack of natural light made the desolate hallway seem oven more empty than it physically was.

The thirteen-year-old shivered. It must have been half-five, nearly six, even. Everyone else had already fucked off home.

Detention had been a boring nightmare. The teacher in charge had made the red-head scrub down dirty desks in Home-Ec. Most of them had been covered in years of spilt liquids and slicks of crusted over cooking mishaps. For all Mr Xemnas could boast about his precious, prestigious fucking school, it's students could be pretty disgusting animals.

It had taken nearly two full hours before the original wood could be seen, and now Axel's arms were strained and aching. He just wanted to get out of there and crash on his messy bed. Screw eating, he didn't care if his mother never bought anything home, the red-head was exhausted.

Axel pulled a small piece of paper from the pocket of jeans, and read the tiny scrawled numbers.

_16 L. 23 R. 5 d. L._

Stopping in front of the top-locker than had been assigned to him, Axel lazily dialled the combination and opened the door to shove his day's books in.

Drawing a tired hand through his hair for third time that day, he pulled at the elastic band and allowed the flaming hair to fall. The boy relaxed slightly as a minuscule amount of tension left his taut shoulders and back. He hated having his hair tied up.

After spending more than seven, quiet, minutes standing in front of the metal compartment, making sure he had everything to complete his homework assignments later, Axel was somewhat stunned that he hadn't noticed a heavy shadow breathing over his neck.

_Fuck._

He should've been concentrating.

A cold finger slid through the red-head's long, glossy hair. A fool would've thought it was an affectionate act, until the hand tugged sharply, causing Axel to pull back and stare into his attacker's eyes.

_Amber. Surrounded by dark-blue hair._

The Sato kid's hair was long, falling mid-way across his back even when tied up. It probably could've rivalled Axel's own. During the cafeteria incident, the red-head had been too riled up to notice the stature of the boy in front of him. He, in fact, towered over the green-eyed boy and if Axel hadn't known any better he would've thought the blue-haired guy was a high-scholar.

"Thanks to you, you little shit, I have a month of fucking detention." Saïx spat, preparing to punch Axel in the abdomen. The red-head attempted to duck the blow, only to have his entire body slammed against the rows of locker, bound by the right fist in his hair pulling him backwards.

Saïx' left arm encircled Axel's wrist, twisting the arm painfully into the small of his back. The boy let out a harsh yelp -not quite a scream, his limbs shrieking in discomfort.

"Fuck, let me go!" Axel twisted in the older boy's arms, trying to get away.

The blue-haired boy let go of his arm, only to capture both of his wrists in a vice-like grip and smash them above his head. Saïx bought his other hand to the red-head's throat and squeezed slightly, his amber eyes darkening.

A spark of electricity tore down Axel's knobbly spine.

"If you'd just stayed in your pathetic little place, none of this would have happened. " Saïx' fingers closed again on the red-head's throat, and Axel immediately stilled as he tried to conserve his breath. But he hadn't been breathing very deeply, and it wasn't long before he was starting to see small flashes of bright light behind his eyelids.

Axel's head was pounding harshly and the skin on his face felt stretched and overly- thin. He was full of needles. Terrified panic started to overtake him and he thrashed mindlessly against the older boy once more, trying to dislodge the large hand on his throat.

Just as the pain threatened to overcome him, Saïx eased his group, and Axel opened his mouth in shattering relief to suck in a lungful of desperate air.

"You and that fucking excuse for a back pa-"

The stench of burning fabric suddenly filled the blazing red-head's nostrils, almost choking him. The only coherent thought that made it to the front of Axel's mind was that he could no longer feel the sensation of Saïx pressed up against him. The dark-blue haired boy seemed to be crouched on the floor, clutching his hands and moaning painfully.

Axel stumbled, his mind hazy.

"Shit! What did you fucking do?" the other boy shrieked.

The red-head boy groaned, finding his bag and pulling it onto sinewy shoulders. All the nerves in his body were on fire, threatening to shatter into darkness.

_Out._

_He had to get out._

A weary sigh.

_Fuck._

_This wasn't going to work out._


End file.
